We Don't Get Paid Extra Over Christmas!
by UnderAGlassMoon
Summary: My 2008 crimbo fic! Not much in the way of plot but good, healthy Christmas fun to do with an angel attack prophesised to happen on the 25th of December and not getting paid extra for it!


**We Don't Get Paid Extra Over Christmas?!**

**Author's Note:** Yes, I understand that in Evangelion canon, December time is around the time that everyone starts going nuts and that the turn of the year is when the events of the End of Evangelion take place. Still, that doesn't make for a good, happy and optimistic Christmas story! So no complaints please if it all seems so out of place because it is!

* * *

The council of SEELE was always a sombre place, even during the festive season. The lack of Christmas cheer was even enough to get Gendo and Fuyutsuki down. "Do they have to call us now?" Gendo asked.

"Apparently so," Fuyutsuki said.

"I don't even think the angels want to attack us at this time of year. What could the old men possibly want?" Gendo muttered.

"I have no idea but I, like you, just want at least one day off," Fuyutsuki added with a sigh.

"You know we're not actually getting the day off on Christmas day?" Gendo pointed out.

"We're...not?" Fuyutsuki said, his right eyebrow beginning to twitch slightly.

"Um...no, we're not. We can't afford to be off duty should an angel attack. That goes for all NERV personal," Gendo explained.

"I thought you said not even the angels want to attack us at this time of year," Fuyutsuki said.

"They may not want to attack but that does not mean that they won't," said Gendo.

"Ikari, you're a bastard."

"I know."

Slowly, one by one, the large black monoliths of SEELE began to appear in front of the two commanders of NERV out of the darkness. Once they were all lit up, SEELE 1 began the meeting by saying, "Ikari, it appears that there has been a new development ascertained from the Dead Sea Scrolls."

"A new development?" Gendo asked. "I thought the scrolls had been thoroughly analysed."

"They were," voiced SEELE 3. "But there was a page missing."

Both Gendo and Fuyutsuki sweatdropped. "A page...missing?" Fuyutsuki asked irately.

"Yes. We found it yesterday," SEELE 10 responded.

"Oh, how convenient," Fuyutsuki groaned.

"What secrets does this scroll tell of?" Gendo inquired.

"It tells of Fourth Impact and the bringer of this destruction. It also tells of the exact date of this event," SEELE 1 replied.

"Fourth...Impact? Okay, there hasn't even been a Third Impact," Fuyutsuki said. "Are people who write ancient prophetic scrolls incapable of counting?"

"Yeah, that got me too," SEELE 7 concurred.

"Silence!" snapped SEELE 1. "Anyway, we need you to take care of this bringer of destruction on the selected date."

"By 'bringer of destruction', you do mean 'angel', right?" Fuyutsuki inquired.

"We have no idea," SEELE 1 said in a booming voice. "We don't even know how it will bring about this Fourth Impact."

"Was it necessary for him to speak in a booming voice?" Fuyutsuki muttered to Gendo.

"No, not at all," Gendo said before turning his attention to the council. "So, when is this predicted date that we need be wary of?"

"The 25th of December of this year, 2014," SEELE 1 said.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either," SEELE 9 said.

"Shut up," snapped SEELE 3.

"My god, this sounds like a contrived and pointless plot to make a Christmas story," Fuyutsuki moaned while shaking his head.

"You're telling me," said Gendo, "that a 'bringer of destruction', most likely an angel, is going to attempt to cause a Fourth Impact, not a third, a _Fourth_ Impact, by unknown means on the 25th of December which is five days away?"

"That is correct Ikari," SEELE 1. "That doesn't really fit with our scenario so, eh, we kind of need you to kill whatever is trying to cause Fourth Impact."

"Thought as much," Gendo muttered.

As suddenly as the monoliths appeared, they were gone, leaving Gendo and Fuyutsuki in darkness. "So uh, Fuyutsuki, I think you should be the one to tell the staff that they're definitely going to have to work over Christmas, most likely on full alert and full combat readiness," Gendo said before scuttling off.

"Figures," Fuyutsuki groaned.

* * *

"I can't believe we have to work over Christmas!" Misato cried, throwing the printed orders she had received against her desk. "This is bullcrap! Nobody works over Christmas!"

"Except emergency services, like police, fire services, paramedics, not to mention doctors," Ritsuko pointed out calmly.

"Nobody except emergency services and doctors work over Christmas!" Misato said, amending her previous statement slightly. "This is bullcrap!"

"You know, I kind of expected us to be working over Christmas. I mean, who knows, an angel could very well attack over Christmas," Ritsuko said, lighting a cigarette.

"They can attack over my dead body!" Misato cried.

"Well, that's probably what they'll do then," Ritsuko chuckled.

"Give me a damn cigarette," Misato snapped.

"You know I won't give you one," Ritsuko said. "I wouldn't let you pick up my vice."

"I only ever smoke when I'm drunk, after I've had sex or when I'm really, really stressed out. I'm pretty mad right now and I know that's not one of my reasons but it seems reason enough," Misato said.

"Would you like a coffee, Misato?" Ritsuko said in a very calming voice.

Misato collapsed into her seat and sighed. "Okay, I'll have a coffee," she conceded. "Black, no sugar and make it extra strong."

"Coming right up," Ritsuko said. Misato spun herself round in her chair, trying to relax and let off some stream while Ritsuko got to work brewing a pot of what could only be described as the rocket fuel equivalent of coffee. "Hey, Ritsuko?" said Misato.

"Hmm?" Ritsuko answered.

"Do you think we'll get extra pay for working over Christmas?" Misato asked.

"I don't know," Ritsuko replied. "That's a good question. They didn't mention it and I don't think it's in the orders they gave us."

"I'm going to ask the commander personally I think," Misato said. "I'll have that coffee when I get back."

"Wait Misato, are you sure this is a good..." Ritsuko said before stopping, realising that Misato was already well out of earshot. "...idea," she finished. "You're something else, Misato." All Ritsuko could do was sigh as she waited for the hot water to boil.

Misato approached the office of the commanders with a great sense of trepidation in her step. She really wanted extra Christmas pay but she didn't want to get fired in the process. Misato took a deep breath before knocking on the door. Slowly and eerily, the door opened without a noise from inside. Misato held her breath as this had never happened before. However, she found that Fuyutsuki had just been at the door and opened it as Misato had knocked it. "Oh, Major Katsuragi," Fuyutsuki said. "The commander and I were just leaving. What is it?"

"I would briefly like to discuss an issue concerning our extended period of work over the festive season, sir," Misato replied. The NERV Operations Officer could immediately see the frustration begin to show on Fuyutsuki's face. "I see," Fuyutsuki said through gritted teeth.

"What is your gripe?" asked the commander, who appeared just behind Fuyutsuki.

"It's not a gripe sir, more an inquiry," Misato explained. "Do we...uh, get extra pay over Christmas?"

Gendo and Fuyutsuki looked at each other with what appeared to be a look of confusion. "Extra...pay?" Gendo said slowly. "Um...after much deliberation, you won't get any extra on top of the combat pay you are already getting." The two commanders swiftly vacated the area, leaving Misato in a state of bewilderment. "No...extra...pay?" she said slowly to herself.

* * *

"That's really taking things too far! No extra Christmas pay?!" Ritsuko placed the hot mug of coffee in front of Misato, trying not to get her ears shot off. "Those commanders! All they do is sit on their asses all day and then suddenly expect us to work on Christmas with no extra pay?! We don't get paid extra over Christmas! That's farcical!"

"We are getting combat pay the whole day," Ritsuko pointed out.

"And that entire day it will be Christmas and I will be in uniform, having to keep sober and not celebrating anything," Misato muttered. "I mean, how could they possibly have reliable information that an angel will attack on that exact day? We never know the exact dates that angels attack!"

"Maybe their source is very good," Ritsuko said, sipping her coffee.

"Maybe we have a spy in angel headquarters? Not likely!" Misato said.

"Oh, this will please you even more then," Ritsuko added. "Officially, the Christmas Day shift begins at 23h00 on the 24th."

"What?! Now I'm even missing an hour of Christmas Eve!"

The peeved purple haired woman downed her entire cup of coffee in one before slamming the empty cup on her desk and putting her feet up. "Every year we get Christmas off. This is ridiculous!" she cried.

"Every year there hasn't been a constant threat of all mankind getting wiped out," Ritsuko pointed out.

"I want my Christmas break!" Misato said with her arms folded.

"You're being incredibly childish over this," Ritsuko said.

"Hmpf!" was the indignant response from the NERV Operations Officer.

"And speaking of children," Ritsuko added, "don't you have to tell the kids this as well?"

"Holy crap, I do," Misato groaned. "When do they next come into NERV?"

"They don't," Ritsuko said. "They'll be coming in tomorrow at 11 o'clock at night, as will the rest of us."

"Damn," Misato muttered. "That means I'll be telling them at home."

* * *

Out of the three pilots, Asuka was the most displeased at the situation. "You mean we have to work over Christmas?! That's a pile of bullshi..."

"All right, all right, I know you're not happy. Neither am I but those are our orders," Misato explained.

"Who in the right mind orders people to work over Christmas?! I was expecting at least a day off!" Asuka cried.

"Apparently, and this is according to the commanders, they have credible information that an angel will attack on the 25th. Because of that, we have to be on full alert the entire day," Misato said. "It's crap, I know but we all have to deal with it."

"Shinji, aren't you annoyed at all?" Asuka asked irately once she realised her frustration wouldn't be best vented on her guardian.

"Um, I don't know," Shinji replied weakly. "I never really did Christmas."

"You what?!" Asuka cried. "Christmas is one of the best things a kid can have! Why the hell wouldn't you?!"

"Because of, well, I never really lived with my family and my teacher didn't believe in celebrating Christmas," Shinji replied.

"Oh...well," Asuka said, at a loss for words at Shinji's story. "Maybe we could...uh..."

"We could what?" Shinji asked.

"We could make the most of it!" Asuka exclaimed nervously. "We could decorate NERV headquarters the whole of Christmas Eve and stuff...you know, get a real Christmassy feel while having to be on duty...I guess."

"That's...that's a great idea Asuka!" Misato said in delight.

"It is?" Asuka asked, slightly taken back by Misato's enthusiasm.

"Sure as hell is!" Misato cried. "If we can't be home for Christmas, we'll take Christmas to work!"

Asuka looked across towards Shinji who was at a loss for words himself. Rei on the other hand seemed indifferent as usual. Misato was clapping and smiling ear to ear over the prospect of celebrating Christmas while on full alert while the three Eva pilots found her exhilaration rather worrying. Misato soon noticed that she was the only one who found the prospect exciting. "Uh...don't you guys like the idea?" Misato asked.

"We do," Shinji said. "It's just...you seem a bit too excited. I mean, how can we celebrate while being on full alert?"

"Shun the non-believer!" Misato cried. "We'll make Christmas happen, I swear! I'm not getting paid any extra for having to work on Christmas day so I'll enjoy it however I please!"

"I should have known it was because you aren't getting paid extra," Asuka muttered under her breath.

"First stop, department store to buy as many Christmas decorations as possible for four people!" Misato cried.

"Oh boy," Shinji said. "Here we go."

The entire afternoon of the 23rd was spent buying inordinate amounts of decorations and even a 12 foot tall tree. The tree quickly proved to be awkward to transport in Misato's Renault Alpine. "Exactly how do you plan to move this?" Asuka inquired sceptically.

"We'll tie it to the top of the car," Misato declared.

"You'll what?!" Asuka cried, looking at both Shinji and Rei for some sort of backup. "Oh come on, don't tell me that I'm the only one who finds this plan absolutely moronic?"

"It is quite...impractical," Rei offered.

"There! Even Rei thinks its a bad idea!" Asuka cried.

"Well, if you don't like it you can walk home," Misato said with a smile as she got some rope out of the boot of her car.

"No fair! I can't be forced to walk for being the voice of reason!" Asuka cried. "And why the hell do you have rope in the back of your car?!"

"For restraining uncooperative Eva pilots," Misato replied nonchalantly.

"What?! Stop kidding around!" Asuka yelled.

"I'll stop kidding around when you start to help Shinji, Rei and I tie this damn tree on," Misato said.

Asuka huffed in frustration and said, "Fine! You win! I'll help you tie you stupid tree down!

* * *

The drive back was interesting to say the least for the parties involved. "Yes, officer, I do realise that I have a 12 foot Christmas tree tied to the top of my car...yes, I know it's illegal..." was what the children heard from Misato's current encounter with the law.

"I knew this would happen," Asuka scoffed.

"Misato usually gets away with things like this though," Shinji pointed out.

"I know, I know. 'I'm Misato and I work to save the world', whoop-de-do," Asuka said.

"You seem...in a bad mood. I thought you liked Christmas?" Shinji asked.

"I love Christmas! I mean, waking up at 7 o'clock in the morning on Christmas day to open up your presents and opening the windows to see everything covered in snow! It's such a great feeling! Then you spend the whole day happy before having a massive Christmas meal! It's so much fun!" Asuka said. "I'm just annoyed at Misato being an idiot."

"Oh, okay," Shinji said. "It sounds like fun."

"You said you never really celebrated Christmas, right?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah," Shinji replied. "It didn't really happen."

"And what about you, Rei?" Asuka inquired next.

"No, I have never celebrated Christmas," the blue haired girl answered.

"Wow, so we have the both of you who haven't really experienced Christmas at all," Asuka said. "Maybe we really should take Misato's plan seriously, even if it is ridiculous."

"I guess this would be my first real Christmas, even if we are on duty," Shinji added with a weak smile.

"That's true! Well, it's settled. We're going to celebrate Christmas even if it means doing it on duty!" Asuka declared.

"I do have one question however," Rei said.

"And what would that be" Asuka responded.

"What is...Christmas?" she asked. Asuka almost fell out of the car upon hearing that question.

* * *

Ritsuko reported for duty at 22h50, thinking that she had arrived early. She had stocked up on cigarettes and coffee for the long shift ahead of her. It was understandable why she was surprised to see Misato at her desk, drinking eggnog. That was failing to mention that there were Christmas decorations everywhere including a massive tree that stood in the middle of their work area. "I like what you've done with the place," Ritsuko said with an approving smile.

"We have to celebrate Christmas, no matter what," Misato said. "The kids agreed with me on that one."

"They would have," Ritsuko said. "Uh, how did you manage to get that tree here? It is rather big."

"On the top of my car," Misato answered.

"On...top of your car?" Ritsuko said with a raised eyebrow.

"I got stopped by the police on both occasions; driving back from the department store and driving to work. The first time they let me off with a warning. The second time they wouldn't let me go so I had to get Rei to pilot her Eva in order to get the tree to its destination After that, they believed that I worked for NERV so they let me go," Misato explained.

"You got Rei to pick the tree up after the police stopped you?" Ritsuko asked, quite taken aback with disbelief.

"Well, she didn't take the tree really. I still drove it. I just got Rei to come down in her Eva to prove a point," Misato answered.

"You're really something else," Ritsuko said with a sigh. "I take it the kids all helped?"

"Sure did!" Misato chirped. "Now we're going to play Christmas music while we wait for the impending angel attack!

Ritsuko chuckled before getting set up and beginning the usual routines she went about while on alert. After Maya had arrived, the pair of them went to the Evangelion cages to check that the units were looking battle ready as well as running computer checks. It was all fairly routine until Maya noticed something odd about the head armour of each Eva. "Um, are they wearing...Santa hats?" the technician asked. Ritsuko quickly turned her head away from the laptop held in her hand to face the Evangelion Units to find that each of them indeed had a giant Santa hat on. "You have got to be kidding me," Ritsuko said. "Where the hell did Misato get her hands on these?"

"The Japanese Self Defence Force made them for her," came the answer in the form of a fully suited up Asuka, albeit with a Santa hat on and tinsel in her hair to boot.

"The JSDF made it? You cannot be serious," Ritsuko said.

"Nope, deadly serious. Misato commissioned them to make three super-sized Santa hats, all made of kevlar and painted with radar reflective paint," Asuka replied cheerily.

"Wait...she commissioned them to do it?! That means she's pulling the money out of NERV's budget!" Ritsuko cried.

"The Evangelion repair budget, to be exact," Asuka pointed out.

Ritsuko slapped her palm against her forehead. "That Misato...she goes too far too often," Ritsuko muttered.

"It's cute though," Maya said. "The Santa hats are a cute touch."

"I'm glad you like them. They were my idea, but Misato made it happen," Asuka said before bouncing off gleefully.

"I still can't believe that Misato did this," Ritsuko said. "But I'm not even mad. I'm actually impressed."

"I'm glad you're feeling the festive cheer," Maya said with a smile.

"I think we need it," Ritsuko agreed.

* * *

The three Eva pilots were left with no much to do so they were in a makeshift crew room that they put together near Central Dogma with basic boredom amenities such as a TV, a Blu-Ray player, games consoles with a selection of games and a sound system that was playing nothing but Christmas music. "I'm back!" Asuka said as she bounded into the crew room to find that Shinji was looking through different Blu-Rays with Rei in order to decide what to watch. "Hey Asuka," Shinji said. "We're thinking about watching a movie. What are your thoughts?"

"I think...MISTLETOE!" Asuka cried as she placed her hand over Shinji's head. He looked up to see an odd looking plant that he didn't quite recognise. "Uh, mistletoe?" Shinji asked with a confused look on his face.

"You're meaning to tell me you haven't heard of the mistletoe tradition?" Asuka asked.

"Um...no," Shinji said sheepishly.

"Well, if someone holds mistletoe over the top of your head, you have to kiss that person!" Asuka explained.

Shinji immediately blushed and said, "I have to...kiss you?"

"Yup! Give me one big smooch on the cheek, idiot!" Asuka said, turning her right cheek toward Shinji.

Shinji slowly edged towards Asuka's cheek and planted his lips cautiously on her face. "That wasn't so hard, now, wasn't it?" Asuka asked as she turned to face Shinji. However, Shinji had focused so hard on the kissed that he kept going forward after Asuka faced him. The resulting collision was better described as a soft clashing of lips. In other words, they kissed again, but this time on the lips. It was completely accidental but both parties involved lingered slightly before parting. "Um, yeah, so...what film are we going to watch?" Asuka asked nervously. Shinji on the other hand was left blushing as red as a beetroot.

"I think this would be good," Rei said, holding up a Blu-Ray in her hand.

"The Nightmare before Christmas! I love that film! Let's watch that!" Asuka said, trying not to look Shinji in the eye. She wondered how he could have possibly kissed her in the presumably accidental fashion he did. Asuka blushed just thinking about it which was something she didn't need at all. Thankfully however, Rei was the only other person who saw what happened and Asuka was hoping Rei remained apathetic towards everything that just occurred. Her hopes would be fulfilled as Rei made nothing of the occurrences that took place right in front of her eyes. They then proceeded to watch the film, although Asuka and Shinji nervously looked at each other constantly, not quite knowing what to say.

* * *

"Has anything happened yet?" Misato asked.

"No," was the response from Makoto, Shigeru and Maya all at the same time. The waiting game had gone on for nearly eight hours now as it was nearing 07h00. There had been no sign of any angel whatsoever and Misato was more than ready to head off to sleep. "This is boring," she muttered.

"I thought the Christmas decorations brought you added cheer," Ritsuko noted.

"They don't stop boredom from striking!" Misato shot back. "This sucks. The angel still has until midnight tonight to strike and we have to wait until then on full alert."

"It's what the commanders ordered," Ritsuko pointed out with a sigh, "although I'm getting tired of it now."

"I told you I was right," Misato said.

"It doesn't matter that it's Christmas Day today. It's just that it's dragged on without anything going on. It seems almost pointless," Ritsuko explained.

"And here I thought you were a workaholic," Misato chuckled.

Just as they thought they were in for a long day, alarms began to ring all throughout NERV Headquarters. "What? An angel? It actually appeared?!" Misato cried.

"We have a large object on radar, right above Tokyo-3!" Makoto exclaimed.

"Right above?!" Misato yelled. "You're telling me our sensors didn't pick it up until now?!"

"It's landed right in the middle of Tokyo-3!" Shigeru said.

"Visual! NOW!" Misato ordered.

"The signal's jammed!" Maya replied.

"Launch the Evas! We need recon on our target!" Misato said.

"Yes ma'am!" Makoto said. "We're getting the message through to our pilots now!"

The pilots had all remained reliable by falling asleep while watching many a movie. However, Misato had installed an air raid siren in the crew room for moments like this. However, as the air raid siren Misato had installed was for airfields, it was very, very loud when sounded in a small room which did its job of waking the pilots up but at the cost of shaking the entire room. It was so loud in fact, that everyone could hear it in Central Dogma. "You installed an air raid siren?" Ritsuko asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I had to wake them up somehow, right?" Misato responded with a shrug of her shoulders.

* * *

The three Evangelion units were launched with the pilots having no real idea what to expect. This was the first time they had been pre-informed of an angel attack and that didn't reassure them one bit. The three Evangelions surrounded the centre of Tokyo-3 where the angel was suspected to be. "This is Asuka, I can't see it yet. Have any of you got it?"

"Negative," Rei replied.

"I can't see it either," Shinji added. "All I can see is a giant snowman in the middle of the city."

"A giant...snowman?" Asuka asked.

"Are you telling me that the large object that our scanners picked up was a giant snowman?" Misato muttered.

"Wait! It's moving!" Shinji cried. "Whoa! It's attacking me!"

"The snowman is attacking you?!" Misato exclaimed.

The two commanders who watched the battle from on top of their perch looked at each other in disbelief. "This is the old men's bringer of destruction?" Fuyutsuki asked. "You have got to be kidding me."

However, it was no longer considered a joked when Unit 01 was struck very hard by the fist of the snowman, sending it flying straight towards Unit 02. The result collision wiped out several skyscrapers, one of which fell on top of Unit 00. "It took out all three in one punch!" Maya cried.

"NO IT DIDN'T!" Asuka cried. "Shinji, get your stupid Eva off of me!"  
"I'm moving, I'm moving!" Shinji said, bringing Unit 01 to its feet.

"What the hell?!" Misato cursed. "WHY ARE WE FIGHTING A GIANT SNOWMAN?!"

"Damned if I should know," Asuka muttered as she stood Unit 02 up. "Let's melt the sucker."

"Get a flamethrower up there," Misato ordered.

"One flamethrower, coming right up," Makoto said.

Unit 02 was very quick to pick up the weapon and approached the snowman and torched it in the hope that it would simply melt. When it didn't, Asuka was left slightly stuck. "Okay, so the flamethrower didn't work," Asuka muttered. She next received a mighty blow from the snowman with Unit 02 crashing into Unit 01 this time. "Did Asuka really believe that is was made from real snow?" Ritsuko asked while dropping her head into her right hand.

"Ma'am, you're not going to believe this but it is actually made from snow," Shigeru pointed out.

"What?!" Ritsuko exclaimed. "Why the hell didn't it melt?!"

"I…don't know," Shigeru replied.

"Why isn't it melting right now?! It's about 28 degrees centigrade out there!" Ritsuko said.

"Actually, the temperature now is about 0 degrees centigrade," Maya corrected.

"No way!" Ritsuko said. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know but I want you three to kill that angel right now. It's freaked us all out enough as it is," Misato said.

"Working on it!" Shinji said. "Rei, go behind it and distract it! Asuka and I will stab the crap out of it with our prog knives!"

"Idiot! That's never going to work!" Asuka cried.

"Try it anyway!" Misato ordered.

"Argh, fine!" was the redhead's exasperated reply.

Rei moved as planed and started to throw fragments of broken skyscraper at the snowman. "Some distraction," Misato said with a large sweat bead going down her head. While the snowman's attention was focused on Rei, Shinji and Asuka both stabbed it from behind to find that it cut straight through. "It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!" Misato cried in glee.

"Oh my god…" Ritsuko moaned as she cringed incredibly hard.

"Um…there's a high level of energy building up in the angel which either mean's it's going to blow itself up or blow itself up along with everything surrounded it," Shigeru said.

"Great, more self-destruction," Ritsuko muttered.

Indeed, the snowman did blow itself up and in the process, wiped out a large chunk of city as well as incapacitating all three Evangelion units. Shinji climbed out of the wreckage of Unit 01 and went down to the city floor. The snowman had well and truly gone. However, it left behind what appeared to be snow all over the ground as well as falling from out of the sky. Shinji walked around, amazed by the sight until he felt something cold and wet smack him in the side of the face. "Haha! Got you!" Asuka cried as she lobbed another snowball at Shinji.

"Hey, no fair! I wasn't looking!" Shinji said as he picked up a pile of snowman before shaping it into a ball. It was then projected at Asuka but instead hit Rei who had also climbed out of her Eva. "Oops…sorry Rei!" Shinji said. Rei didn't say anything back but instead, made a snowball of her own and threw it at Shinji which connected square in the face. "Nice throw Rei!" Asuka laughed. "Let's pelt Shinji with snowballs!"

Shinji was subject to a vicious attack from the two girls before everyone ended up collapsing in the snow and messing about, making snow angels or simply lying their. Their plug suits proved to be very good at keeping them warm as well. "This is so much fun! Who would have figured that the angel would have self-destructed into all this snow?" Asuka said.

"I know. It's weird but cool," Shinji agreed. "Hey, where's Rei?"

"Wasn't she just here?" Asuka asked as she sat up to look around. Shinji did likewise, only to find that Rei was just above them. Holding mistletoe of all things. "You two have to kiss now," Rei said.

"What? Kiss Asuka?!" Shinji cried.

"Scared Shinji?" Asuka asked.

"No! I've kissed you already today!" Shinji protested.

"Correction. Twice," Rei pointed out.

"Oh yeah…that one," Asuka said. "Um, yeah, we have to kiss again."

"Yeah, I know," Shinji said.

"Make it quick?" Asuka asked as they moved closer to each other. After a quick peck on the lips, they both put some distance between each other. "There? Happy Rei?" Asuka asked.

"I believe the tradition has been fulfilled," Rei replied. "That is most agreeable."

"I kissed Asuka three times in the same day," Shinji said with a shocked expression on his face.

"AND WHAT EXACTLY IS WRONG WITH THAT?!" Asuka roared.

"Nothing! Don't hurt me!" Shinji said. With that, Asuka began to chase the pilot of Unit 01 around in a circle while the beginnings of a smile began to form on Rei's face. "We still have all day to celebrate Christmas," Rei pointed out.

Asuka stopped running and said, "Yeah, that's true!"

"That's a good thing, right?" Shinji inquired.

"Of course it's a good thing! And I say we begin with…ANOTHER SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Asuka declared. Upon those words, snow balls were tossed around everywhere to celebrate the start of this very odd Christmas day in Tokyo-3.

* * *

Misato on the other hand, was less than happy. "I can't believe we didn't get paid extra for working Christmas day," she muttered. Ritsuko could only sigh at her companion.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Here's my Christmas story for 2008! Hope you enjoyed! Have a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Year!


End file.
